The last two rounds I have played, I have encountered a situation that does not seem to make sense to me regarding some golf course maintenance procedures. One time, a maintenance worker drove up to the green with a spraying unit on the back of his work truck and shut the engine down when he arrived. He waited patiently for us to putt out and when we walked off, he started the engine, lowered the spray booms and began spraying the green with a green solution.
We teed off on the next hole and just as we got to the green, he showed up to spray. Again, he shut the engine off and waited for us to finish. As we walked off he cranked up the engine, lowered the booms and started spraying. When we reached the next green, guess who showed up as we were walking on? Sprayer Man. And he showed up on the next green and the next.
For years, I have seen this happen with changing cups, mowing fringes or trimming tees, raking bunkers, and as happened the other day, running the fairways dragging a mesh screen to break up and spread out clumps of just mowed grass.
We all know and accept that course maintenance is a must, and has to happen to keep the course maintained and playable. We all accept this and, in fact, welcome it as we like playing on well maintained and groomed courses. But there has to be a better way than having a maintenance worker sort of chasing you down and catching up to you every hole — hole after hole. After a few holes, this can get really annoying and begin to ruin your round. I believe there is a better way to approach any maintenance that has to be done on all 18 holes, especially if they do it in sequence.
The incidents I just described happen every day at courses everywhere because not all course maintenance can be completed before the first early tee time. Maintenance can't be done in the dark. So, most maintenance has to be done while players are on the course. A maintenance worker travelling the course, going forward 1 ' 18 as golfers' play a round of golf, who keeps catching up to them, is not the best way for the worker or for the golfers.
The Solution: Why not have maintenance workers run the course backwards from 18 to 1. That way they run into a group only once. One time does not become a nuisance or annoyance. Heck, even if a group runs into 2 or 3 or 4 different workers travelling backwards it is not a problem as he is done and gone. Having a worker show up hole after hole is an annoyance. One and done per maintenance job is not. The golfers are happier and keep a better pace of play, the maintenance gets done and likely at a better pace of time. Everybody and everything is in better harmony as nature intended.
A win'¦win situation.
The Surge!